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WASHINGTON First, the Democrats got clobbered in the election by the Republicans.

Now theyre squaring off against each other in a civil war.

This political Gettysburg pits the Democratic Party base against the Obama machine called Organizing for Action, or OFA, the community-organizing army left over from the former presidents election campaigns.

How bitter is the battle?

Two Democratic operatives recently called OFA The Devil.

When former President Obama issued a call to arms to his OFA troops in order to protect his legacy, particularly Obamacare, Stephen Handwerk, executive director of the Louisiana Democratic Party, wrote in a private email to fellow party leaders, This is some GRADE A Bullst right here.

President Obama

He added, It also to me seems TONE DEAFwe have lost over 1,000 seats in the past 8 years all because of this crap.

What do YOU think? Sound off on Democrats calling Obamas shadow government The Devil. Take part in the WND Poll!

The email was obtained and then published Friday by the Daily Beast, which reported: It is difficult to overstate just how enraged state Democratic activists and leaders are with Organizing for Action.

How powerful is OFA?

Just a week ago, WNDs former Washington bureau chief Paul Sperry portrayed OFA in the New York Post as an army gearing up for battle, with a growing war chest and more than 250 offices across the country manned by 32,525 volunteers nationwide, run by old Obama aides and campaign workers armed with his 2012 campaign database.

Sperry called it Obamas army of agitators numbering more than 30,000 who will fight his Republican successor at every turn of his historic presidency. And Obama will command them from a bunker less than two miles from the White House.

Sperry warned Obama would be working behind the scenes to set up what will effectively be a shadow government to not only protect his threatened legacy, but to sabotage the incoming administration, and that its drawing battle lines on immigration, Obamacare, race relations and climate change.

Obama may have an army, but who will they follow?

I love and adore everything about President Obama except for OFA, said South Carolina Democratic Party chairman Jaime Harrison, according to the Washington Post.

He was just one of numerous Democratic Party leaders who have insisted their beef is with OFA, not Obama.

But OFA is Obama, the way Sperry describes it.

He is their supreme leader. And running OFA is his new job. The former president who would be shadow president.

Obama will be overseeing it all from a shadow White House located within two miles of Trump, wrote Sperry. It features a mansion, which hes fortifying with construction of a tall brick perimeter, and a nearby taxpayer-funded office with his own chief of staff and press secretary.

So, what happened? While Obama tools OFA to become a potent threat to Trump, why do Democratic leaders feel threatened by OFA? How did their common desire to go to war with the Trump administration turn into a fratricidal battle royale for control of the party?

It appears to have been a battle long brewing beneath the surface that is now emerging into public view.

[With] all due respect to President Obama, OFA was created as a shadow party because Obama operatives had no faith in state parties. So I hope the OFA role is none. I hope OFA closes their doors and allows the country and state parties to get to the hard work of rebuilding the party at the local and grass-roots level, Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb told Politico.

She further explained why it has not, on the whole, been a winning strategy: OFA had no faith or confidence in the state parties so they created a whole separate organization, they took money away and centralized it in D.C. They gave us a great president for eight years, but we lost everywhere else.

If we were having a conversation about state parties, I would say OFA hurt state parties badly, Handwerk told The Daily Beast, elaborating on his leaked email. It certainly had an undercutting effort. And there is a lot of work state parties do that isnt very sexy and that becomes incredibly difficult when budgets are cut in half because people are trying to curry favor with the president and his allies.

Compounding what Politico called a period in which the party suffered tremendous losses at the state and local levels since Obama won in 2008, was what it described as a degree of mistrust rooted in the idea that OFA was always primarily interested in advancing the presidents political interests, often at the expense of the party.

And now that OFA wants to take the lead in rebuilding the party, the party is fighting back. Democratic leaders see it as a matter of self-preservation and survival.

[OFA] created a shadow organization that was recruiting the same volunteers [as the Democratic National Committee], using resources from a very limited number of donors, and therefore, as a result it weakened the DNC and the impact that the DNC and state parties could have on politics during his tenure, South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison told Politico.

He added, Youve got five organizations knocking on the same door with five different messages. Thats not conducive. In the age of Trump we need to be a lean, mean, strategic machine.

Another key problem seemed to be the perception that OFA wasnt about the party, it was all about Obama.

Weve seen over the last eight-plus years a deterioration of permanent state infrastructure, a Democratic operative anonymously confided to the Daily Beast.

And, he explained, OFA built an alternative infrastructure that was very top-down. OFAs actions were wasteful, duplicative, and it made no sense There were these tensions on the ground that we saw that all over the country. Local officials felt tossed aside. A lot of these red states were abandoned. The OFA model was never a 50-state strategyit was about the presidents agenda.

That revelation may be clear now to party leaders, but former Rep. Michele Bachmann mused, I wonder if rank and file democrats understand Obama was about advancing his personal agenda through his OFA community organization?

That Democratic operatives reaction to seeing OFA trying to get back in the game?

Its like seeing an ex-girlfriend show up.

On top of the explicit animosity toward OFA, and the implicit resentment of Obama, is a legacy the party must now face.

The former president doesnt get Democrats elected, he gets them defeated.

Obamas coattails were strongest before he became president, sweeping into office with majorities in the House and the Senate, allowing him to push through Obamacare without a single Republican vote.

Democrats have been losing power and elections at an astonishing rate, ever since.

Bachmann told WND, Next to Jimmy Carter, Obama single handedly did more to destroy the Democratic Party than the GOP could have ever hoped or planned.

Under Obamas reign, Democrats lost a net total of 1,042 state and federal posts, including congressional and state legislative seats, governorships and, ultimately, the presidency.

By the time the 2014 midterm elections rolled around, as WND reported, Democrats were running away from Obama.

Only one Democratic senator running for reelection wanted Obama to appear with him on the campaign trail in 2014.

And even at that, candidate Gary Peters less-than-enthusiastically observed, The president will come to Michigan to campaign, and Im going to stand next to the president.

But, Democrats didnt just shun Obama on the campaign trail. They actually campaigned against him.

That was illustrated by campaign quotes from desperate Democratic candidates in the key races that caused the party to lose control of the Senate.

Kentuckys Democratic candidate for Senate, Alison Lundergan Grimes declared in an ad, Im not Barack Obama. I disagree with him on guns, coal and the EPA.

The Democrat refused to say during an interview whether she even voted for Obama in 2012,calling it her constitutional right to stay mum.

Let me tell you, the White House, when they look down the front lawn the last person they want to see coming is me, warned Democrat Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado during a debate.

Sen. Mark Begich, the Democratic incumbent from Alaska insisted he took on Obama to fight for oil drilling in Alaska and would bang him over the head a few times on the need to drill.

Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas paused during his debate before making his closing statement to make sure everyone knew, I voted against every budget that President Obama has offered.

Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu made a point of emphasizing during her debate, I do not agree with President Obama on his energy policies, later adding, I havent agreed with President Obama on everything. She also damned the president with faint praise, giving his job performance a 6-to-7 out of 10.

When asked on MSNBC if she thought the president had shown strong leadership, Democrat Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina hedged a bit before conceding, Certainly there are issues I think on um, no.

During her debate in New Hampshire, Democrat Sen. Jeanne Shaheen was asked if she approved of Obamas job performance, Yes or no? The incumbent evoked a wave of laughter from the audience when she responded instead, In some things I approve and in some things I dont approve.

The former presidents campaign guru, David Axelrod, told NBCs Meet The Press it was a mistake for Obama to claim his policies were on the ballot.

I think Obama being so unpopular is the biggest factor in this election, predicted Tom Jensen, a Democratic pollster with the firm Public Policy Polling. And I think at the end of the day, it may be too much for a lot of the Democratic Senate candidates to overcome.

He was right.

Now, in the disastrous aftermath, Obama is calling upon Democrats to regroup and unite behind OFA.

But, judging by the initial reaction of party leaders, he may be trying to lead an army of rebels.

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Now Democrats call Obama's shadow government 'The Devil' - WND.com

WASHINGTON (AP) Just in time for Presidents Day, a new survey of historians on presidential leadership gives the top five slots to Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Franklin Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower.

Its C-SPANs third survey on presidents, and the first in which Eisenhower cracks the top five. In 2009, Eisenhower ranked eighth and in 2000 he ranked ninth.

Barack Obama ranks 12th on his first time in the survey of 91 presidential historians.

A member of the survey advisory team, Rice University historian Douglas Brinkley, says its fitting that Lincoln, Washington and Franklin Roosevelt are the top three. And he says its quite impressive for Obama to come in at 12 in his first survey. Brinkley also notes that George W. Bush moves up from 36 to 33.

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C-SPAN survey lists former Pres. Obama as 12th best president - NBC4i.com

By Michelle Malkin

The resignation of national security advisor Michael Flynn has the anti-Trump media declaring the new administration a "mess," in "turmoil" and thrown into "chaos."

Funny, these same Chicken Littles barely shrugged their shoulders during the turmoil-laden first 100 days of Barack Obama's first term. Some perspective is in order.

Remember the withdrawal of Obama's pick for National Intelligence Council chairman, Charles Freeman, in March 2009? Obama had tapped the former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia for the sensitive post despite abundant conflicts of interests. Freeman had served for four years on the board of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, a company owned by the Chinese communist government. The state-owned firm has invested in Sudan and Iran. Freeman also led the Middle East Policy Council, a Washington, D.C.-based group funded by the Saudi government. And he chaired Projects International, a consulting firm that had worked with foreign companies and governments.

Obama knew all that and looked the other way at Freeman's role as a de facto lobbyist for Saudi royalty. Even worse, he ignored Freeman's Jew-bashing and tyrant-coddling record with a Blame America axe to grind. Freeman carped that our country exhibited "an ugly mood of chauvinism" after the 9/11 attacks and condemned his fellow countrymen for connecting the dots of Islam and Saudi-funded jihad: "Before Americans call on others to examine themselves," he fumed with Jeremiah Wright-style bombast, "we should examine ourselves.

In fine form, Freeman inveighed against the "Israel Lobby" in his resignation letter.

The screed said less about Freeman than it did about the Obama administration's AWOL vetting system. Where were the watchdogs to guard against terror-friendly conspiracy-minded kooks slipping into sensitive intelligence positions?

The Freeman withdrawal came after a series of Obama nominee withdrawals that the amnesia-suffering Beltway media has now conveniently forgotten in its haste to declare Trump's transition the worst disaster ever.

By this time in Obama's first term, former Democratic New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson had withdrawn as Commerce Secretary nominee after both liberals and conservatives protested his long record of corruption and incompetence. His political horse-trading with private businesses -- campaign donations for infrastructure projects, patronage jobs and board appointments -- was so notorious it had earned him the moniker "Dollar Bill."

At the time Obama tapped him to lead the Commerce Department, Richardson was the subject of a high-profile probe and ongoing grand jury investigation into whether he traded New Mexico government contracts for campaign contributions. The White House transition team knew about the pay-to-play scandal involving a California company, CDR Financial Products. They knew that the FBI and federal prosecutors had launched a probe of CDR's activities in New Mexico in the summer of 2008. They knew CDR was tied to a doomed bond deal in Alabama, which threatened to cause the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. They knew CDR had raked in nearly $1.5 million in fees from a New Mexico state financial agency after donating more than $100,000 to Richardson's efforts to register Hispanic and American Indian voters and to pay for expenses at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

It took 33 days before Team Obama threw Richardson and his ethical baggage off the bus.

Richardson's replacement, former GOP Sen. Judd Gregg, accepted and then quickly withdrew after disagreements over Obama's massive federal stimulus proposal and Democrats' politicization of the Census.

Another Beltway barnacle, former Democratic South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle, was also forced to withdraw from his nomination as Obama's Health and Human Services secretary amid a storm of ethical scandal, conflicts of interest, and tax avoidance. That was compounded by Treasury Secretary Geithner's admission of "tax goofs" involving his failure to pay $43,000 in federal self-employment taxes for four separate years (until, that is, he was tapped for his Obama post). At least five other Treasury staff picks withdrew before the Obama administration had reached the 100-day mark over tax problems, conflicts of interest, bad judgment and records of lax oversight of industry.

By the end of his first 100 days, Obama had set a turnover record for an incoming cabinet with four major withdrawals.And by the hallowed 100-day mark, Obama had announced less than half of the total Senate-confirmed Cabinet department positions he needed to fill, with only 10 approved -- even though the Democrats had an overwhelming majority in the Senate at the time.

Yes, there will be significant bumps in the road and some tough lumps to take as President Trump builds his team. But a dishonest media and preening political establishment pretending there's something "unprecedented" about such stumbles only discredit themselves.

Michelle Malkin is host of "Michelle Malkin Investigates" on CRTV.com. Her email address is writemalkin@gmail.com.

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Bumps in the road: Trump vs. Obama - Lowell Sun

In theory President Obama did one 11th-hour demarche after another to cement his legacy: eschewing a veto at the U.N. re Israeli settlements, plus giving over $200 million to the Palestinian Authority which partly uses such cash to reward terrorists and their families; the commutation of Private Mannings sentence, essentially for treason; and perhaps most laudably, his ban on oil and gas drilling on federally owned property with abundant wildlife in the Arctic, and in the Atlantic from coasts off Massachusetts to Virginia (seems there are already enough good oil sources about). Along with creation of national monuments in Utah and Nevada. All for legacy? So we often hear...

Im not sure, however, that that was Obamas main motivation in all this ninth-inning activity. In terms of legacies, memories are short these days, and many especially on the Left wont remember or care about the huge debt increase that occurred under Obamas watch, use of the IRS to punish conservatives, the way Obamacare was rammed through without Republican votes, and not least, his repetitive rushing to judgment on difficult law enforcement issues. They wont...

I just dont think legacy was President Obamas sole goal in why he kept slugging up to the closing bell. Instead, it seemed a clear signal that this ex-Oval Office occupant wont go quietly into the night. A signal that he will want to remain continually relevant. And indeed, he spoke out quickly on Trumps immigration-refugee edicts, an obvious sign of more to come.

In this regard Obama probably wont resemble another two-termer in the White House, George W. Bush, who simply stepped away after his transition period, wished the next guy well, then offered little advice on anything. And mainly out of a certain courtesy. Like him or not, that one has to concede this particular president.

By contrast Obama will almost certainly be offering his proverbial two cents on a regular basis in speeches here, there, and everywhere. Or in writings. Or on TV shows. Or at think tanks... Deep down, hes still going to have a motivation that goes beyond legacy i.e., what he did or did not do for the country during his eight years in the White House.

More important is that hell remain the same smooth, smiling, clearly talented, but somewhat narcissistic gent who keeps wanting to show people, maybe most his late mom and maternal grandparents, that gee, arent I wonderful? I just gave another meaningful speech.

Of course his 11th-hour moves were all aimed at pleasing his progressive constituency, the same people who will remain consistently obstreperous toward Trump, and can provide willing and approving support for Obama in retirement from the presidency.

I mentioned one facet of his record that wont be well recalled or scrutinized; and that was his proclivity for rushing to judgment in a deleterious manner. This of course regarding publicized incidents involving law enforcement types with dangerous gigs on their hands in Missouri, Louisiana, Minnesota, or Maryland. One could add the ex-presidents approving views expressed on the merits of SF quarterback Colin Kaepernick, protesting his countrys inveterate penchant for inequality via the adoption of controversial pig socks.

Fewer and fewer will remember how Obamas hasty pronouncements only exacerbated crime in inner cities, due to what came to be called the Ferguson effect. I.e., reluctance of the uniformed to step in amidst amateur paparazzi and often scary hostility, as well as potential legal quagmires, in order to be proactive concerning potential wrong-doers. All of which undoubtedly contributed to resurgent crime levels in a number of urban areas.

Legacy? Yes, many will have real amnesia about how unseemly and unfair was all this Obamaesque judgmentalism emanating from his fortress in Washington, and far removed from downtown Chicago, St. Louis or Minneapolis. They wont recall that he simply wasnt elected to make such hasty moral pronouncements. That he was elected to do his job, not to be a prosecutor before the other side had even gathered and given evidence.

Dont look too hard at the legacy, runs the sub-text here; instead, see how this ex-president quite possibly becomes a vocal critic-at-large in the coming years, using plush pulpits, indeed.

B.B. Singer has taught at several area colleges including Niagara University.

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SINGER: Thoughts on Obama and the legacy issue - Niagara Gazette

An Obama-tied activist group training tens of thousands of agitators to protest President Trumps policies plans to hit Republican lawmakers supporting those policies even harder this week, when they return home for the congressional recess and hold town hall meetings and other functions.

Organizing for Action, a group founded by Obama and featured prominently on his new post-presidency website, is distributing a training manual to anti-Trump activists that advises them to bully GOP lawmakers into backing off support for repealing ObamaCare, curbing immigration from high-risk Islamic nations, and building a border wall.

In a new Facebook post, OFA calls on activists to mobilize against Republicans from now until Feb. 26, when representatives are going to be in their home districts.

The protesters disrupted town halls earlier this month, including one held in Utah by House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz, who was confronted by hundreds of angry demonstrators claiming to be his constituents.

The manual, published with OFA partner Indivisible, advises protesters to go into halls quietly so as not to raise alarms, and grab seats at the front of the room but do not all sit together. Rather, spread out in pairs to make it seem like the whole room opposes the Republican hosts positions. This will help reinforce the impression of broad consensus. It also urges them to ask hostile questions while keeping a firm hold on the mic and loudly boo the the GOP politician if he isnt giving you real answers.

Express your concern [to the events hosts] they are giving a platform to pro-Trump authoritarianism, racism, and corruption, it says.

The goal is to make Republicans, even from safe districts, second-guess their support for the Trump agenda, and to prime the ground for the 2018 midterms when Democrats retake power.

The goal is to make Republicans, even from safe districts, second-guess their support for the Trump agenda

Even the safest [Republican] will be deeply alarmed by signs of organized opposition, the document states, because these actions create the impression that theyre not connected to their district and not listening to their constituents.

After the event, protesters are advised to feed video footage to local and national media.

Unfavorable exchanges caught on video can be devastating for Republican lawmakers, it says, when shared through social media and picked up by local and national media. After protesters gave MSNBC, CNN and the networks footage of their dust-up with Chaffetz, for example, the outlets ran them continuously, forcing Chaffetz to issue statements defending himself.

The manual also advises protesters to flood Trump-friendly lawmakers Hill offices with angry phone calls and emails demanding the resignation of top White House adviser Steve Bannon.

A script advises callers to complain: Im honestly scared that a known racist and anti-Semite will be working just feet from the Oval Office It is everyones business if a man who promoted white supremacy is serving as an adviser to the president.

The document provides no evidence to support such accusations.

Protesters, who may or may not be affiliated with OFA, are also storming district offices. Last week, GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher blamed a mob of anti-Trump activists for knocking unconscious a 71-year-old female staffer at his Southern California office. A video of the incident, showing a small crowd around an opening door, was less conclusive.

Separately, OFA, which is run by ex-Obama officials and staffers, plans to stage 400 rallies across 42 states this year to attack Trump and Republicans over ObamaCares repeal.

This is a fight we can win, OFA recently told its foot soldiers. Theyre starting to waver.

On Thursday, Trump insisted hes moving ahead with plans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, which has ballooned health-insurance premiums and deductibles. Obamacare is a disaster, folks, he said, adding that activists protesting its repeal are hijacking GOP town halls and other events.

They fill up our rallies with people that you wonder how they get there, the president said. But theyre not the Republican people that our representatives are representing.

As The Post reported, OFA boasts more than 250 offices nationwide and more than 32,000 organizers, with another 25,000 actively under training. Since November, its beefed up staff and fundraising, though as a social welfare non-profit, it does not have to reveal its donors.

These arent typical Black Lives Matter or Occupy Wall Street marchers, but rather professionally trained organizers who go through a six-week training program similar to the training steeped in Alinsky agitation tactics Obama received in Chicago when he was a community organizer.

Chicago socialist Saul Alinsky, known by the left as the father of community organizing, taught radicals to rub raw the sores of discontent and create the conditions for a revolution. He dedicated his book, Rules for Radicals, to Lucifer. Michelle Obama quoted from the book when she helped launch OFA in 2013.

Obama appears to be behind the anti-Trump protests. He praised recent demonstrations against Trumps travel ban. And last year, after Trumps upset victory, he personally rallied OFA troops to protect his legacy in a conference call. Now is the time for some organizing, he said. So dont mope over the election results.

He promised OFA activists he would soon join them in the fray.

Understand that Im going to be constrained in what I do with all of you until I am again a private citizen, but thats not so far off, he said. Youre going to see me early next year, and were going to be in a position where we can start cooking up all kinds of great stuff.

Added the ex-president: I promise you that next year Michelle and I are going to be right there with you, and the clouds are going to start parting, and were going to be busy. Ive got all kinds of thoughts and ideas about it, but this isnt the best time to share them.

Point is, Im still fired up and ready to go, and I hope that all of you are, as well.

Excerpt from:
Obama-linked activists have a 'training manual' for protesting Trump - New York Post